When you are calling a company to make inquiries, a usual scenario would be an agent sitting in one of those cubicles answering your call. This picture is common to most businesses, but not to Jet Blue Airways. Recently, this airline company introduced their work at home jobs, where an agent can work at home. This is a big help, especially to mothers who want to be at home looking after their kids. 

Jet Blue Airways is among the enterprising companies who are beginning to explore the possibility of having their agents work at home. In a CBS Evening News Story, an employee of Jet Blue Airways, Suzy Dall, was interviewed to talk about her work as one of the company’s work at home reservation agents. She is only one of the 800 work at home agents that they have,who no longer have to spend eight hours a day in a cramped cubicle, answering phone calls from customers wanting to reserve airline tickets. 

“If you call 1-800-JetBlue, you’re going to get someone in their home,” said JetBlue’s CEO David Neeleman. He further added, “The minute we made that transition, their productivity was 25 per cent better. Even today I can’t figure out why more companies don’t do it.” 

Indeed, after the morning family chaos of breakfast to brushing, Suzy Dall goes up to her room and “logs” on. This is not telecommuting where people work at home once in a while. This is an actual career based at home, and the house is the only place they ever go to work. 

“This is it. This is my office,” Dall said about the room, while sitting right by the window, overlooking the cul de sac. “Once that first call comes in, my whole focus changes. I’m not a Mom anymore – all of a sudden I’m this person who is trying to be a good customer service representative.” 

Jet Blue CEO Neeleman created these work at home jobs as a way to reduce employee turnover. Every month, employees quit their jobs because of too much stress. It’s not any wonder. These agents take more than ten million calls a year. If that’s not enough to stress you out, then I don’t know what does. Jet Blue figured that if these agents were to work at home, then they would be on familiar turf, and would be much happier than in some call cubicle warehouse. 

And so the idea for work at home agents began. But what started out as a way to increase productivity in their employees, soon became a way to tap into the Internet revolution. This type of work at home opportunity is like hitting two birds with one stone. You take advantage of the comforts provided by the Internet, and at the same time allow for the family-centered revolution. 

“I am able to be here when they leave in the morning. And I’m here when they come home from school in the afternoon. So I feel like I am a stay-at-home mom, yet I can get my work done in between,” Dall said. 

Today, both parents may have a career of their own, and are usually not at home. This results in the kids being left on their own, and neglected. This situation can be remedied without sacrificing the income of the family. Being a work at home agent, mothers can spend time with their kids, and at the same time contribute to the income of the family.